Centrist Democrats Hold Possible Cure

Washington reaches the logical nadir of its current dysfunction at week's end with the arrival of the sequester, an approach to deficit-cutting so mindless that when the idea was hatched just 18 months ago, everyone agreed the two parties would never actually accept it.

And this moment is being met by, well, nothing. The most stunning aspect of the latest budget impasse is that nobody really is scurrying around to prevent it. With...